Welcome to the final month of the season’s “core four” nationally (May-Aug = ~50% of annual rounds). Beyond the Perspective facts and figures in each issue, our Publications subscribers and Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) participants have seen the preview version of the July Essential 8 KPI scorecard covering: Golf Revenue, Rounds Played, Avg. Rate/Rd, Capacity Rounds, % Utilization, Golf Revenue-per-Available Round, Avg. Peak WE Greens Fee (rate card changes) and % Effective Greens Fee (discount levels and change); see below for links if you want to join that merry band of outlaws, “be in the know” and out ahead of our July final figures which will be published last week of this month.
Publisher Jim K. headlines this month outlining a deployed and proven in-market approach and tools for improving customer/golfer retention in response to a recent podcast by 2 of the allied industry associations’ CEOs who highlight it as an enigma (and outside their purview to solve). Spoiler alert, it all starts with 90%+ customer-to-transaction tie in your PoS system and…80% plus contact (email) information capture for that universe. How long has Stuart L. been harping on this? (hint, his hair wasn’t gray when he started). We’re working with Metolius to make our previously manual data handling process “touchless” which speeds up the process and eliminates one of the friction points for the owner/operators; stay tuned.
Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay takes us on a trip down memory lane of the Lindsay Brothers various businesses (ag equipment one, which touched the golf space) which are part of Milwaukee history and what he learned along the way growing up in the family business and how regulation and technology forced change and, like golf, produced equal amounts of favorable and unfavorable bounces. He ties it back to the current upheaval in course technology (what has real benefit and “legs” vs. little/no substance) and how the debate about tech regulation for the brave new world of AI might play out if history is a guide.
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional July weather impact (off slightly) to By-the-Numbers which provides the June and Year-to-Date results for Rounds (flat and up mid-single digits) and Utilization (slight up for both the month and YtD). We’ve already compiled the July golf operations performance scorecard “preview”, courtesy ofour Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) early-responders, and the sneak peek suggests that Rounds will follow the decline in weather in both direction and magnitude (which will mean basically flat Utilization). If you want to know those numbers on a regular basis, you can either participate in GMRC (course operators) or sign up for a Publications Membership (everyone else).
If you know of associates who would benefit from the topics and insights covered in this issue, feel free to forward this email and encourage them to register on the Pellucid website (http://www.pellucidcorp.com/news/elist) to join the discussion and healthy debate.
